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» Building your child's reading skills

Last updated 12:02 PM on 21 July 2014

Here are some simple tips to encourage your child to become a strong reader and a book lover for the rest of their lives.

Share a book at home

Children love to hear a story read aloud. Try reading with different voices, lots of emotion, invented sound effects and funny faces. Change the tone in your voice and vary its loudness or softness. Have fun and enjoy it.

It's a good idea to practise reading before sharing a book. Listen to your child talk about the story and the pictures. Try asking your child which parts of the books they found exciting, funny or different.

Research the internet

When kids use the internet they need skills and knowledge that are different from those found in books and other printed materials. These skills include such things as links, images, icons and searching.

The internet is a wonderful resource for finding things to support your child's literacy development. If you are searching for a good book to read to your child, try entering a publisher or an author's name into a reliable search engine such as Google.